I reached out to the biggest names in the online video advertising industry to get their replies to just a couple questions about what they believe 2011 will hold for online video advertising. The responses were so good and expansive that I decided to run it as a series of articles. In Part One we hear from Iggy Fanlo (adBrite), Tod Sacerdoti (Brightroll), Andy Tu (Break Media) and Chris Young (DBG). How's that for an all-star lineup?! I basically asked two questions, or rather, two sets of questions in regards to what these industry leaders saw as being the major trends that will emerge in 2011.

What Will be the Big Trend for Video Advertising in 2011?

Standardization of Ad Formats and Technology will Accelerate Growth

Iggy Fanlo, President & CEO - adBrite: Advertisers are moving ad dollars in droves from TV towards video advertising. YouTube was the spark which ignited the change, but inefficiencies in broadband has accelerated the pace of the shift. The importance of standardization in the video space cannot be overstated. Standardization through VAST and VPAID are key in breaking down format barriers. The operational efficiency that standards such as VAST bring rapidly increase the amount of available inventory. This standardization of formats and technologies enable advertisers to easily reach larger audiences across multiple sites. As brand advertisers have the ability to tap into premium brand-safe content at scale, video demand and ad budgets will accelerate the move online.

The big push in targeting for 2011 (within video) is going to be audience buying (BT) within video. BT is a de facto standard for digital advertising campaigns with proven results. Combining the performance of BT with the potential of online video is a logical next step. The challenge to creating a truly scalable solution for BT video is the limited nature of video reach, which will constrain the ability to conduct audience buying. BT works well in a display environment, but has challenges in video due to the following factors:

A lack of data standardization makes it challenging to leverage cookie data to target and optimize.

There is a lack of scale in video. Brand advertisers typically do not want to run against user generated content and BT combined with restrictive content guidelines severely limits the scope of the buy.

There currently lacks a solution to match up creative dynamic video to the audience and the advertiser.

The standardization of formats will enable online video to scale and grow exponentially as well as provide the scope for BT.

Mobile Video Advertising to be the Most Sought New Video Ad Format

Tod Sacerdoti, CEO, Founder - Brightroll: Mobile video advertising comes on a full screen, is highly interactive, highly scalable and hyper targetable -- essentially, it's an incredible branding environment. Unfortunately, although ad networks now control nearly 85% of all ad dollars in the mobile advertising business, the infrastructure to support video advertising at scale (meaning with proper 3rd party ad serving, measurement, yield optimization, etc) is still not fully built out. However, that's all about to change. I believe that in 2011 mobile video advertising will finally become "real" and will start to be a common request from media buyers.

Interactive Video, Ad-Selectors and Branded Entertainment

Andy Tu VP Marketing - Break Media: In 2011, more users will be turning to digital platforms including the web as a primary source of entertainment. Additionally, more content providers—including major networks, studios, and talent—will be making significant investments in digital platforms including the web as a distribution channel.

To engage audiences on these growing platforms marketers will increasingly be employing new video opportunities beyond traditional pre-roll including interactive video based ad units, ad-selector models, branded entertainment. Those marketers and publishers at the forefront of the medium will employ new technologies including 3D and HD. Digital video will not be defined as a web only phenomenon and we will start to see video scale across new platforms such as iPad, mobile devices, internet-enabled TVs, and 3D-enabled TVs in the new year.

Branded Entertainment, Video Ad Interactivity

Chris Young CEO - DBG (Digital Broadcasting Group): Look for branded entertainment to be a force to be reckoned with in 2011. Advertisers are going to have to find clever, unique and engaging ways to reach the consumer without becoming too intrusive. Branded entertainment offers the opportunity to seamlessly integrate an advertiser's message into content that is relevant to their target consumer.

Along those same lines, I believe that interactivity will be crucial to the success of any online video campaign in 2011. Expect low-end web advertising to die. With video channels like YouTube offering the viewer the ability to skip over advertisements on certain videos, marketers need to have some sort of added value to the content they're distributing. You can't just beat a consumer over the head with your static video ad and expect them to take action. In 2011, advertisers will have to be just as focused on content creation as today's leading online publishers.

2011 is going to be the year of "smart reach" – reaching the right consumer at the right time with content that's relevant to them. The concept of demographics will fade away as more content is consumed via some sort of connected device. As mobile continues to expand and adoption of connected devices grows, online advertising inventory will adapt to offer the opportunity to deliver advertising in a far more granular and effective manner. Advertisers will begin taking advantage of this once they realize that taking the traditional television model and applying it to online video just doesn't work anymore.

2011 - More Branded, Interactive, and Mobile Video Advertising

So it looks like the future will be branded, interactive and mobile, important for you advertisers out there.For you publishers, it's time to start adopting video advertising standards like VPAID and VAST because that is what is going to get you more ads, better prices and help pave the way for the future. Plus, with standard in place it will be far easier for advertisers to get their video ads out to more places.

Later this week, we'll find out what they think about how ads will be placed online, the future of real-time bidding and its specificity.

About the Author - Christophor Rick

Christophor Rick is a freelance writer specializing in technology, new media, video games, IPTV, online video advertising and consumer electronics. His past work has included press releases, copy-writing, travel writing and journalism. He also writes novel-length and short fiction as part of Three-Faced Media . View All Posts By - Christophor Rick

What do you think? ▼

Great post Christophor! I think that we are going to see more personalization in video ads. The sames trends that dominate display ads in retargeting are going to shift into the video space.

Wait for it...

Yaniv CTO SundaySky

http://www.Spidvid.com/ Jeremy Campbell

No big surprises here, great research conducted though. I really think mobile video will be massive in 2011, I just got into the viewing medium myself and I'm loving it. Although it sucks coming to flash video that I can't view on my iPhone or iPod Touch. Therefore HTML 5 will be huge too in 2011.

Christophor Rick

I don't know. iOS is only about 33% of all mobile internet surfing according to recent research (http://www.reelseo.com/4g-mpeg2-acquisitions-blackberry/) and falling. That's technically the minority and with the launch of Flash for new mobile OS's and Windows Mobile 7 gaining steam I could see it not being as major as all the hype surrounding it tries to make it out to be. I think Jobs is artificially blowing it out of proportion to try and separate their product which is inferior in some ways yet.

http://www.VideoLeadsOnline.com/ Ronnie Bincer

The Hound uses a Mac for making videos but for mobile viewing says... UseMyDroid